Tuesday, April 24, 2007

When I awoke this morning to the news that scientists had actually found kryptonite (I always knew it was real), I really thought it was bad timing for the Travolution Summit.

I mean, despite all the interesting topics on the conference agenda, surely none of them could be as interesting as the discovery of kryptonite, right?

Thankfully, I was wrong. The Summit has only just begun and already I have heard about one of the coolest pieces of technology to come along for a long time.

That is the Photosynth technology which takes photos and stitches them together, allowing people to search for information about photos in a search engine without having to use any words.

The technology also stitches together photos together that are taken from different angles so you can zoom in and out and see where the pictures were taken in relation to one another.

Technology development is also underway to allow people to build their own “synths” and share with friends, Mel Carson, adCenter’s community manager, Microsoft Europe, told Travolution delegates.

The brains behind Photosynth envisage a day when you spark up your laptop and there’s a picture of the world, and hovering over the world are all the pictures people have taken. You can then “dive in” and get satellite and get 3D imagery and view your photos with everyone else’s around the globe.

New mobile technology will complement the Photosynth wizardry. “One day you can walk out of your house, zoom down the street and see how close the nearest Starbucks is,” said Carson.

Of course, this technology presents a world of opportunity for advertisers.

The big question posed by Carson: Will this technology enhance the experience for online travel industry?